1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to an endoscope cleaning apparatus. More particularly, the present invention is directed to an endoscope cleaning apparatus capable of simply cleaning a scope of an endoscope.
2. Description of the Related Art
In, for instance, a medical inspection room employing an endoscope, the conventional endoscope cleaning apparatus is installed under such a condition that no specific intention is paid in a relationship between the suspended positions of scopes of these endoscopes and the install position of the cleaning apparatus. In other words, the position at which the scope of the endoscope used in the medical endoscope inspection is suspended on the endoscope stand, is apart from the position at which the cleaning apparatus is installed within the medical inspection room.
In use of such a commercially available endoscope cleaning apparatus, all of the endoscopes which have been used for the medical endoscope inspection in, for instance, a day are cleaned after completion of the medical endoscope inspection. In other words, if the scheduled medical endoscope inspection is not yet accomplished, usually the cleaning operation of the endoscopes used in this inspection is not carried out.
In a practical case, needs are however made to clean the used scopes of the endoscopes even during the medical endoscope inspection. In such a case, the used scopes of the endoscopes are cleaned under the suspended condition on the scope stand not by using the conventional endoscope cleaning apparatus, but simply by using a gauze wetted with cleaning fluid. Otherwise these used scopes are manually washed by use of water.
The above-described conventional manual cleaning operations by wiping the used scope by the gauze wetted with the cleaning fluid, or the water, require a plenty of cleaning operation time, and cumbersome works. When the used scope is manually washed by way of water for the cleaning purpose, the cleaning water may be dispersed which causes medical dirty problems. In general, there is no cleaning tub in an endoscope medical inspection room. Even if such a cleaning tub for medical tools is employed, it is generally positioned far from an inspection bed site where an endoscope is installed, so that this endoscope must be picked-up from the scope stand and thereafter be moved to the cleaning tub positioned far from the endoscooe stand. As a result, such conventional manual-cleaning operations provide various problems in view of the medical inspection and endoscope operabilities.
On the other hand, to accomplish the medical endoscope inspection as quickly as possible, the time required for cleaning the used scope must be shortened in view of the medical conditions of a biological body under examination.
As a consequence, the cleaning operation for the used scopes of the endoscopes is normally commenced after the medical endoscope inspection of the biological body has been completely accomplished.